An experimental blog for an inquiring mind

One last night on the road

I thought there was only one camping condition I don’t have a solution for, the combination of wind and rain. But nope, there’s another: hordes and clouds of hundreds of thousands of ravenous mosquitoes, mobbing the van and clinging to it as though they know where they really want to be is it inside.

Stopped at a CG with a few open loops at Diamond Lake, thinking it would be a lovely place for my last night on the road, and the view was indeed lovely. BUT the above-mentioned hordes were increasingly apparent the longer I drove around seeking the right spot. I got as far as filling out the envelope and putting the claim slip on the post. In the course of which at least a dozen mosquitoes achieved their goal of entering the van. I was going to drive back out to the pay station and deposit the envelope with the cash in it, but as I sat and thought a bit, the following became clear: 1) trips to the potty, however short, would be like running a gauntlet; 2) there was no way I could walk CJ, who was due for one; 3) the process of putting the cats out for the night would be another gauntlet, and I would have to dig out the mosquito nets I bought to cover their crates, and did I really want to do that?

Ultimately, no. So with apologies to the universe for leaving the claim slip on the post (there was no way I could have gotten out and back in the van without admitting at least another two dozen mosquitoes, which I was unwilling to do just to be a good camping citizen in a very underpopulated (gee, I wonder why) campground), I reluctantly mapped to home. BUT not far down the road, I found a little two-spot CG called Thielsen Forest CG, so small even Allstays doesn’t seem to know about it. But it has the two essentials—a place to park and a (vault) toilet, so here I am. With the bonus of cell service. And free. There are a few mosquitoes out there, but several orders of magnitude fewer than at Diamond Lake. A great relief, because I am tired enough that the three hour drive home felt like considerably more than I wanted to do. But in the morning, it will feel like a piece of cake.

(I may or may not ever get around to blogging Arches or Bryce or the rest of the trip. The number of pictures I took is overwhelming, so between processing and selecting which to use, and then doing the actual composing and uploading. . . Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see.)